Lime- Punch is a baby monk monkey from the Peruvian Amazon who was separated from his mother at birth and transported to the arid Lime to become a pet. Happily he was rescued and now, tied to a stuffed animal, like his famous Japanese namesake, he seeks the warmth that was taken from him by illegal animal trafficking.
The friar monkey, also known as the squirrel monkey, is a small species of primate that reaches an average of 32 centimeters and is found in the jungles of Central and South America.
Little Punch, who was rescued last Friday in the capital of Peru weighing 90 grams, “was dehydrated, in poor condition and little by little he has been recovering.”explains to EFE the wildlife veterinarian of the Huáscar Metropolitan Club, in the south of Lima, Julio Carrión with Punch in his hands.
(Paolo Aguilar)
The veterinarian reports that traffickers trap monkeys in different locations in the area. Peruvian Amazon and they usually kill the mothers to separate them from the offspring and then sell them, but on the way to Lima, where they reach their maximum economic value, nine out of ten animals die.
This happens because the road trip from the jungle to the capital can take 15 to 30 hours and the babies are hidden and transported in terrible conditions.
Carrión adds that the babies of different species of monkeys are “skin to skin” with their mother during the first four months of life, so when they are rescued it is very common to give them a stuffed animal to somehow replace this contact.
“It is a technique that is very often used, since when they are babies, they are clinging to the mother’s chest and that is their way of life until a certain age. In the case of friars, it is more or less 4 or 5 months until, let’s say, natural weaning occurs, and he can start eating solids and be a little more independent,” says the veterinarian.
Add that The stuffed animals have a texture that reminds them of their relatives and, like the viral Punch monkey from the zoo in the Japanese city of Ichikawa, the Peruvian Punch uses it as an object of attachment because he does not have his mother.
The little monk monkey cannot be separated from his stuffed animal, also in the form of a primate, and although he looks thin, he already exceeds 100 grams thanks to the care of the rehabilitation center of the Club Metropolitano Huáscar, of the Lima Parks Service, located in the district of Villa El Salvador.
(Paolo Aguilar)
Specialists estimate that in three months they will be able to gradually introduce him to his twelve species companions who are also in the center, so that he can begin to socialize, although they warn that this process must advance little by little, because as happened to the Japanese monkey, it is possible that it will generate rejection.
The shelter has dozens of animals rescued from illegal trafficking in the Amazonso in the place the Peruvian Punch is accompanied by more than 30 monkeys, macaws, a toucan, a sajino (wild pig), about thirty turtles, several coatis, eagles, and even an Andean fox, among others.
Carrión explains that when these animals recover and are young, they are normally transferred to other state centers in the Amazon for later release, but when they are adults or have a health problem, returning to their habitat is not feasible, since they have lost their hunting and survival abilities.